Best Supporting Actressess of 2015; My Picks. Prizes to be won!

The last and final acting category before we go into the technical and artistic awards. Let me tell you something, I had an extremely difficult time picking the best performance of the year for this one. Hmm, I think you’ll find some interesting and unconventional choices here, but these were the best supporting performance in my opinion. Tell me what you think! Alright, let’s get to it!

There are 6 nominees for this one.

And don’t forget to scroll all the way down to see the challenge! You could win 2 reblogs or a $25 Amazon Gift card. Your choice!

Nominees for the Bear Award:

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Alicia Vikander is a revelation. This year has seen her star in not one but four fantastic films (The Testament Of Youth, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Burnt, The Danish Girl and Ex Machina). 2015 definitely belonged to Alicia Vikander. But let’s not detract here. Her performance in Ex Machina will forever go down as one of the best A.I acts of all time. Not only did she amp up the mysterious human-like behaviour of Ava, she also effaced seductive charm and ambiguity that made her scenes a jittering watch. Alicia Vikander is so full of life inside her cyborg frame and she constantly leaves you unsettled; Hear the subtle buzz from her movements, look into her eyes – What do you see?

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Anomalisa)

I think you’ll find it hard to credit a voice actor/actress for an acting award because let’s face it, voice acting is perceived as being easier. The physical act is totally expressed by the animation,so there’s nothing to show for when it comes to physical expression. Subsequently, it makes it harder to truly shine. Once in a while, like a solar eclipse in the cinematic world, a performance or two transcends their auditory boundaries to produce something incredibly heartfelt and powerful. Scarlett Johansson’s AI voice-acting in Her was trailblazing. Two years later, Jennifer Jason Leigh breaks the mould again. J Leigh’s incredibly realistic and nuanced tone and dialogue, pauses and hesistations, nervous laughter, sweet singing, insecurities and pure bliss and joy all make Lisa(her character) seem so real. Other than fantastic scripting and dialogue (credit to Kaufman and team), J Leigh’s voice couldn’t have been more sincere and natural. This here isn’t animation; It’s the real life.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Jennifer Jason Leigh AGAIN. Yes, this girl is on fire! Just like how I nominated Michael Fassbender twice (for MacBeth and Steve Jobs), J Leigh’s had such great performance that I had to nominate her twice. I actually didn’t really like the Hateful Eight in terms of craft and quality. Sure, it was entertaining and supenseful. But violence was unrestrained, primative, degrading and had little significance other than show the characters in their most brutal and self-interested light. It almost conveyed Tarantino’s chauvanism- It’s not true. And that’s the sad part. The conception of Daisy’s character lacked depth, she was simply a punchbag to take all the abuse without the ability to fight for her rights. But Tarantino would have done that with even with a male character…which just shows how bad the characterization was. You must be wondering what I’m driving at after detracting for quite a while. Tarantino’s failure has dampened J Leigh’s character but has conversely spotlighted her acting. Even under such brutality, it’s the cheeky smile or the defiant spit that makes her shine with irony. But I’m not taking anything away from her performance. Her humourous acts to mock her captors prove to be an even greater irony; That the most slaughtered character provided the most contrast. When she needed to act all beaten up though, JJ Leigh’s amped up the bar to the highest bar. Singlehandedly, she has turned the worst character into the best character.

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Now this is the complete opposite to the above. Whereas the bad character conception ironically made the actress shine even more, here, Aaron Sorkin’s script is so riveting and complex with rapid dialogue, the actress needed to find ways not to overpower the already highly-charged material. You’d think it’s easy. Just blabber dialogue right? Wrong. Ironically (again), shepherding the role requires subtlety under intensity. Kate Winslet pulled it off impeccably. She grew into the role and made it her own. She delivered just the right amount of anger, frustration and inspiration. Her character was righteous and relentless. Kate Winslet was dedicated and convincing.

Marion Cotillard played Lady MacBeth the exact way I saw her character. Devious. Desperate. Enchantress. Megalomaniac. Citizen. Amidst her character’s seeded lust for power, there is something which we can all relate. Lady Macbeth was so scary in her drive and determination, and i couldn’t have thought of anyone else to play her role. Marion Cotillard’s talent and beauty is beyond what words can describe, and she pulled of this role with an exquisite aura of seductiveness. She seduce and got the Macbeth couple to the thrown but her most powerful scenes lie in the destruction, both inward and outward, that exposes Lady MacBeth’s most vulnerable self.

Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

“Out here is all about our hustle. And That’s It.”

You guys know how much I love Tangerine. Some of it had to do with Mya Taylor’s performance. It is one of my favourite performances of all time. She plays a transgender woman who helps her friend locate her boyfriend who supposedly cheated on her. The movie is really ridiculously funny. But besides the humourous slapstick moments and explosive chaos, Mya Taylor’s controlled and powerful performance takes you from the giggles to the sadness without even trying. She herself is a transgender along with her co-star Kitana Rodriguez. So some people might say it’s easy for her simply to re-enact life on screen. But that’s wrong. Even though it’s based on the lifestyle, Mya Taylor’s role required far more than simply mirror real life. Some scenes were over-the-top, some mellow, some introspective and some hit you so hard. Her control and raw emotion is able to convey all of that and leave you wondering about how her character’s doing after the film. It’s an honest performance and one that makes you cry with sadness and joy. As she would say, “Gurl, it hit all the feels”.

Nominees once more:

Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Anomalisa)

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Marion Cotillard (MacBeth)

Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Winner: Mya Taylor

This was the closest call. Loved Alicia Vikander in Ex Machina. Loved Mya Taylor in Tangerine. Both were vastly different, one played seductive artificial intelligence, the other played transgender hustler. One struggled to break free, the otherr struggled to find acceptance. Both were so good! But alas, Mya’s hilarious and heart-wrenching performance in Sean Baker’s outrageous and yet hard-hitting film about the transgender sub-culture in Tinsel Town leaves you connected to her character in more ways than you can imagine.

MOVIETRIVIA QUIZ (2 reblogs to be won for correct answer):

Little Bear decided to have some fun designing so he decided to come up with a challenge with 6 images; Each one in relation to the nominees in some way related to the character or film. Easter Egg movie trivia time! Can you match all of them? Some are easy, some are deliberately ambiguous, some are symbols, some are motifs, some are character-specific, some are related to other aspects of the film the actress is in. Give it a shot! First correct answer in the comments gets 2 reblogs or a $25 Amazon gift card. (If you want the reblogs, it can’t contain offensive material). It can be ones you’ve already written or for future posts. Goodluck!

Simply match each of the six images to the name of the film (Anomalisa, Ex Machina, The Hateful Eight, Steve Jobs,MacBeth and Tangerine). Each film has an associated image. You must get all six correct to win. So for example…

Clown Mask-The Dark Knight

Floating Feather-Forrest Gump

This is a little harder, so goodluck!

Oh and don’t worry about how to describe the images, you won’t be penalized if its inaccurately described. Just so long as i know which object you’re talking about 🙂

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This is such a tough category for me- so many amazing performances this year! I think Vikander in ExMachina is my pick, but I don’t think I could even rank the rest if I tried. I have no idea what to do for my Oscar ballot since she wasn’t nominated for that role either way 😦

Great job 🙂 I would have counted Marion Cotillard under lead Actress though 🙂 With the exception of Macbeth and Tangerine, I really did not like any of the particular nominees here. But I can understand why you love some of them though I understand you were no fan of Hateful Eight 🙂 I was not either 🙂 As to your earlier question about when I will have part 2 of my Academy Awards blog up, I plan on having it up next Sunday to give my thoughts on what I would have nominated and the Sunday after, I will update it with my predictions 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂

Glad you liked my post 🙂 Cool, I look forward to it!! Hmm,yeah kinda, but I think she sort of played a supporting role to the rise and fall of macbeth. But her character is so strong in the film,so she could definitely have been lead as well. I’m glad you like Mya Taylor in Tangerine!! It’s just sad that the mainstream movies always seems to overshadow its indie rivals…like The danish girl taking the glory instead of Tangerine. You didn’t like Anomalisa? Oh and btw,i just watched Taxi Tehran with a friend,it was so good!

Great summary and review… I seldom watch movies anymore because I bound around so much – but when I do (mainly on a plane) there is nothing better. You’ve reminded me of one I need to watch, especially with one of my favorite actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight). Cheers!

Nice post! Well, it looks like I have some movie-watching to do as I’ve only seen Ex Machina & Steve Jobs. I agree with those being included! Loving the Jennifer Jason Leigh love here. 🙂 I sooooo need to see Hateful Eight & Anomalisa! I’ll be watching all of these as soon as I can.

Thanks 🙂 JJ Leigh really outdid herself, my favourite was her voice acting in Anomalisa. Ok! I can’t wait to hear about what you thought about them. Oh and btw, I still go back to watch the coffee and tv video whenever I need something to cheer me up haha 🙂